1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the persistent storage of digital content as well as the utilization of digital rights management functions for securely communicating content between network components. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reserving digital rights.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital content information has recently gained wide acceptance in the public. Such digital content includes, but is not limited to: movies, videos, music, and the like. Consequently, many consumers and businesses employ various digital media devices or systems that enable the reception of such digital multimedia contents via several different communication channels (e.g., a wireless satellite link or a wired cable connection). Similarly, the communication channel may be a telephony based connection, such as DSL and the like.
However, the transport and utilization of digital content can present certain problems. One such problem that currently exists is the reuse of an original license to continuously gain access to digital content information. Notably, a user can create a backup of the original license file and subsequently consume the associated digital content information with the original license file. Conventionally, the original license file is not located in a secure storage medium. Thus, a user can regain the consumed digital rights by overwriting the “partially consumed” original license (which now has one less “digital right”) with the backed up version of the original license file (which contains the digital right previously used). By repeating this process, a user can conceivably possess an unlimited license.
Another problem typically associated with the transport of digital rights data with counted rights (such as a limit on a number of playbacks or a number of copies) is the significant amount of time required to download, copy, or move a large digital content file. If the necessary digital rights are not available to consume the requested content after downloading, then the downloaded digital content information is useless and a waste of resources. Typically, the delivery of a decryption key to the user (i.e., the client device) signifies the consumption of the digital content information. However, the decision of when to deliver a decryption key for a particular download is problematic. If the key is delivered from a first device to the second device prior to the download (i.e., while the user determines if digital rights are available), then the rights on the first device (e.g., number of available playbacks) have to be reduced accordingly and the user may lose the digital rights without consuming the digital content, e.g., if the download procedure fails due to the lack of disk space or other storage failure. Conversely, if the decryption key is delivered after the downloading process has completed, then the digital rights on the first device have not yet been reduced and may be consumed by another device within the home network during the content download. Thus, the requesting device will not be able to access the requested content when the download process is completed.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for reserving digital rights.